1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, and a control method thereof in which a mass storage medium is detachable.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus is an apparatus that forms an image corresponding to input image data, on a recording medium, such as a printing paper. A printer, a facsimile, and a copier are examples of image forming apparatuses. Further, the image forming apparatus is connected to a host apparatus and can perform various types of data exchange and information exchange with the host apparatus.
On the other hand, as semiconductor and data compression technologies have recently been developed to satisfy users' demands, the image forming apparatus is provided with a mass storage medium. The mass storage medium can be used as a storage medium of the host apparatus that is connected to the image forming apparatus. Generally, a hard disk drive (HDD) is used as the mass storage medium.
Generally, the mass storage medium can be attached to and detached from the image forming apparatus. Conventionally, various types of files are stored in the mass storage medium attached to the image forming apparatus, and the mass storage medium can be detached and can be attached or mounted to other image forming apparatuses. Therefore, the various types of files stored in the mass storage medium can be used in more than one image forming apparatus.
However, the various types of files stored in the mass storage medium can be shared by many people, and a problem arises when files require secure access or when files contain images that only can be formed by a designated (i.e. authorized) image forming apparatus. The files requiring secure access and the files containing images that can be only formed by the designated image forming apparatus may be exposed to other persons easily when a mass storage medium that stores the files is detached and mounted on other image forming apparatuses.